


always rushing in

by CassioP



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Dramatic Irony, Dumb preteens, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, No beta we die like High Kings of the Noldor, Valinor, Years of the Trees, cliff diving, or something
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28431891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassioP/pseuds/CassioP
Summary: “Why is it my lot in life to put up with them?” Maitimo asked, half genuinely frustrated, half joking. Findekáno looked as if he wasn’t quite sure whether he was allowed to laugh. Usually, Maitimo’s rule was that only he himself was ever allowed to make fun of his brothers. He figured that he might end up making an exception for Findekáno here as well.In the golden age of Valinor, Prince Maitimo brings his young cousin Findekáno, the son of his father’s disdained half brother, along on one of his and his brothers' hiking trips for the very first time. Against the odds, the walls they’ve put up crumble, and a legendary friendship gets its start.
Relationships: Fingon | Findekáno & Maedhros | Maitimo
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	always rushing in

**Author's Note:**

> Hello <3 I'm in quarantine and I felt like writing something light-hearted. Feel free to read this as either gen or pre-slash depending on what you prefer. I just love these characters - They don't pay me mind-rent, or whatever it is you say ;)

Cliff diving never was Maitimo’s favorite activity. Sure, he’d tried it countless times, but he'd never enjoyed it much. You could count him in when it came to horse racing, athletics, archery, or, for that matter, a good old-fashioned swim. Anything really, if it didn’t involve casting yourself into the unknown. Even on a perfect summer day like this, with its vibrant, cloudless sky and still wind, Maitimo was perfectly content to just sit in the shade. He was slowly working his way through his father’s annotations on one of Loremaster Rúmil’s treatises on Common Eldarin and adding his own in the margins whenever the right thought struck him.

The same couldn’t be said for the four of his younger brothers who’d come along, eager to revisit one of their favorite diving spots, a picturesque lake hidden deep in the forest. Káno might be feigning loud protest as Tyelko and Moryo hauled him towards the edge, but he was smiling broadly, and when his feet left the cliff he soared through the air, landing elegantly in the dark lake water. He swam to the surface and grinned up at them, self-satisfied, and daring them all to hurry up and follow him.

“Findekáno, your turn!” Tyelko declared, turning everyone’s attention to the newcomer, their cousin, who they couldn’t help but think of as the obvious odd one out. Their kinship aside, Maitimo hardly knew Ñolofinwe’s eldest. The last time they’d seen each other, Findekáno had only been a toddler, spending banquets on his mother’s lap, looking out on the world with wide curious eyes. He doubted Findekáno even remembered that time. The decades since then had passed quickly, Maitimo spening them engrossed in his studies, assisting his father, and traveling the lands with his family, only rarely returning to their grandfather’s court in Tirion.

Now Findekáno reached almost to Maitimo’s shoulder, he sang and rode horses, strolled through the streets of Tirion surrounded by his friends, and supported _his_ father almost as fervently as Maitimo and his brothers supported theirs. Last week, when they'd all been visiting grandfather Finwe, Maitimo had invited Findekáno to come with them to the lake, mostly out of politeness. He'd been surprised when Findekáno had enthusiastically agreed. 

Despite being quickly branded a “city boy” by his cousins, Findekáno hadn’t complained at all during their daylong hike from Tirion. Instead, he’d set a quick pace, chatted amiably with each of Maitimo’s brothers about whatever interest he had in common with them, and taken their taunts in stride. All the while he seemed to watch Maitimo with a sort of quiet intensity. Maitimo had thought him brave, for going out into the wilderness with the out-of-town half-cousins he knew so little about. Now, standing near the edge of the cliffs, a bit away from the others, Findekáno looked slightly scared for the first time.

“What?” Tyelko continued as he approached Findekáno. “It’s the oldest first. And you’re older than me, right?”

“Shouldn’t Neylo have gone first, then?” Little Curvo, who anyone with sense would deem far too young to jump from a cliff, remarked, looking over at Maitimo, as if expecting him to set it right.

Maitimo gestured with his book. What he meant was: ”Keep me out of it,” but he couldn’t stop himself from saying “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want, Findekáno.” 

They hadn’t set out to traumatize the kid, after all. Maitimo didn’t want him to regret coming along.

“No, it’s fine,” Findekáno said, sounding nervous, but very determined. “I want to.” He walked past Tyelko and Moryo, till he reached the exact place Káno had jumped from. That, Maitimo thought, was probably not a bad idea.

“Don’t worry, it’s not dangerous. We do it all the time,” Moryo assured Findekáno. That was quite a bold talk for someone who’d spend most of the previous summer refusing to go near the edge, but Maitimo wasn’t about to rat his brother out. And Findekáno, who was clearly trying his hardest to focus, didn’t seem to hear Moryo’s words at all. After a moment, which probably felt like an eternity to Findekáno, he bent his legs and threw his body forward. Soon he was landing in the water, feet first, and reappearing, looking proud of himself. It was not half bad for a first-timer, Maitimo noted.

“That’s it, Ñolofinwion!” Tyelko yelled. “Now, move!”

Maitimo didn’t go back to his reading until Findekáno was safe on dry land, smiling as Káno patted his shoulders and congratulated him on his very first jump.

***

His brothers and cousin kept themselves busy the next long while, jumping and rock climbing and swimming in the lake. They splashed, squealed with excitement and chatted in high voices. Maitimo, who was nothing if not used to high levels of background noise, tuned it all out as he turned page after page.

That got significantly harder when his brothers shifted focus and started using every trick in the book to get him to join them on the cliffs.

“You aren’t scared, are you, Neylo?” Curvo asked, pulling on his arm. “You’re not afraid of anything!”

“He’s just worried it’ll mess up his hair,” Tyelko said, tugging on one of Maitimo's braids.

Maitimo didn’t take the bait. Not even when Findekáno, looking up at him, tilted his head and quietly said. “I'm pretty sure the ancient languages will still be here tomorrow.”

“Curvo, stop that,” Maitimo vented, gently pushing his brother away. “I told you all I had reading assigned. Can’t you leave me alone for one damn second?”

That did the job. Káno dragged the little ones away and they all went around the lake to scale the rocks on the other side. As much as he didn’t want to, Maitimo felt slightly bad for snapping at them. When he tried to go back to his book, he found himself struggling to concentrate.

So when Findekáno came back to where he was sitting, asking if he wouldn’t come and watch him jump one more, he agreed and followed him to the edge. Findekáno dove into the water without fear, his technique much improved. The water rippled where he’d hit it, circles spreading across the lake. Maitimo waited impatiently for the moment when Findekáno’s dark head would pierce the surface.

But nothing happened.

Nothing. Findekáno was just _gone_.

Terror rose in Maitimo’s chest. “Findekáno!” He yelled, suddenly panicking. “Findekáno! Findekáno!”

No one answered. 

Without thinking further at all, Maitimo leaped from the cliff, his arms flapping as he crashed toward the water. He didn’t stick the landing and pain rushed through him as he dived deeper down, searching for Findekáno’s frail shape. He had to be there somewhere…

 _There!_ Finno was in the water just below him. He gripped him and held him tight as he swam upwards. Soon breaching the surface, Maitimo gasped for air. Beside him, Findekáno was conscious and floundering, and to Maitimo’s relief and confusion clearly not drowning at all. Maitimo blinked at him. “I’m sorry,” Findekáno croaked as he clung to Maitimo. “I didn’t mean to scare you, I just… I wanted you to get in the water…”

He sounded like he expected Maitimo to yell at him. As he tread water, still shaking from shock, part of Maitimo wanted to yell. Somehow all that left his mouth was: “Thank the Valar, you’re alive! I got so scared.” He swam towards the bank and helped Findekáno out of the water 

They ended up next to each other, sitting in the wild grass. Maitimo couldn’t help but think aloud.“What if you’d actually drowned, Finno? What would I have told your mother? What would I have told your father?”

Findekáno looked ashamed. “I’m sorry, Maitimo.” 

“You’ve already apologized,” Maitimo removed his hair ties and tried to tame his, now soaked, hair. He pretty quickly gave up and let it fall down his back. “Nothing happened to you. Tomorrow, I’ll be bringing you back to my uncle’s in one piece”

Findekáno nodded, a little stilted. He was quiet for a while. Then he asked: “ _Your_ father would have been overjoyed, wouldn’t he? If I’d gone and just drowned myself. ”

Maitimo stiffened. “That’s a little harsh, Findekáno.” He said, uncomfortable. “It’s not like that.”

"Isn't it?" Findekáno asked. He sighed deeply and suddenly his eyes looked so sad. “He doesn’t like me. Or my father, or my grandmother. He wishes we weren’t here at all.”

Maitimo had always thought, inwardly, that some of the well-crafted insults his father would hurl at Ñolofinwe, were rooted less in hatred and more in habit. That the two of them, despite an age of feuding and more or less pointless rivalry, had some sort of brotherly affection for each other. That didn’t help Findekáno much, though, Maitimo thought. He was just a kid, who couldn’t understand how his uncle seemed to resent him for something he couldn’t control at all.

“He’s right about a lot of things,” Maitimo said, trying to get it right, to comfort Finno without talking ill of his father. “But not everything. And If it’s any help at all, _I_ like you just fine.” He wrapped his arm around Findekáno and spoke again in a much lighter tone. “And Káno said your harp playing was decent enough. Coming from him, that’s practically the highest of praise. _Atar_ might warm up to you too, if we give it a _yen_ or two.”

Findekáno chuckled. At least they could joke about it. “If you got rid of me, Fëanaro would probably raise your allowance,” Findekáno said, nudging Maitimo in the ribs. 

Maitimo shook his head. Then he pretended to consider it. “So like, the opposite of babysitting?” Findekáno opened his mouth to protest, clearly not happy about being compared to a baby. Maitimo continued, grinning now. “I’ll remember that. It might be good to have a backup plan if the whole prince thing doesn’t work out for me…”

Findekáno leaned on Maitimo’s shoulder. “It’ll work out for you,” he said. Not trace of doubt was in his voice.

***

“Why didn’t you want to cliff dive?” Findekáno asked. The evening had fallen and Maitimo was working on lighting a campfire. His brothers were out in the forest, testing out Tyelko’s new bow. “I know you aren’t scared of water, Findaráto has seen you swim, and Káno says you’re a faster swimmer than him.”

“Of course I’m faster than Káno,” Maitimo said, a little curtly. Normally, that would be the end of it. Today, with Findekáno, for some reason, it was not. “It’s not that I’m afraid of it,” He explained. “I just don’t like the loss of control. I never have.” He’d never said that out loud before. It felt oddly freeing to get out. Especially sitting here, on the forest floor with Findekáno, who didn’t seem at all like the type to judge.

“Oh,” Findekáno said, putting a hand on Maitimo's shoulder. “That's fair. Sorry again for making you do it.”

“All is forgiven,” Maitimo said, smiling. He could laugh at it now, how quick to worry he’d been. All his older brother senses had gone to high alert in a matter of seconds. “That stunt you pulled, I’d have expected that from Tyelko or Moryo, not from…” Something dawned upon him. “Wait,” He said. “That wasn’t your idea at all, was it? _They_ put you up to it.”

For a moment, Findekáno looked as if he wanted to deny it. Then he carefully nodded, looking guilty. “Káno said it would only work if it was me doing it.”

Maitimo groaned. “ _Why_ is it my lot in life to put up with them?” He asked, half genuinely frustrated, half joking. Findekáno looked as if he wasn’t quite sure whether he was allowed to laugh. Usually, Maitimo’s rule was that only he himself was ever allowed to make fun of his brothers. He figured that he might end up making an exception for Findekáno here as well. 

“Finno,” He said. “Here’s a solid piece of advice: Don’t ever listen to what my brothers say. And also: Never take the fall for them.”

Findekáno smiled. “Because you’re the only one allowed to do that?” He guessed. His voice was soft and full of something Maitimo couldn’t quite decipher. It took him a moment to realize that Findekáno was making fun of him, in a much gentler way than Maitimo was used to.

“Yes,” He insisted, aware that it was slightly ridiculous. “It’s my job, you see. For better or for worse, we’re stuck with each other, for all the ages, me and those lunatics I call younger brothers.”

Findekáno laughed without hesitation now. Beside them, the fire had come alive, warm and bright.

“Maitimo,” Findekáno began, just as they began to hear Káno and the others making their way back to them through the forest. “When we go home tomorrow, are you going to disappear for thirty years again?” He looked Maitimo into his eyes and sounded as if he was almost certain he knew the answer, but wanted to be completely sure. 

“No,” Maitimo said, without further ado. “I won’t, I promise. I’m afraid that you might be stuck with me too, now.” 

Findekáno beamed. Maitimo smiled back and knew that what he’d spoken was the truth. He couldn’t leave Findekáno. Not even if he tried.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I wrote this in an afternoon, so It might be a little rough :)  
> And I’ve never gone cliff diving so I’m sorry for any inaccuracies :) Kudos and comments would make my day <3


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